CHOCOLATE POPSICLES

I am so happy about the weather. I can't believe how hot it is here in London. It has become a rare occurrence in the past few years that I have resigned to keeping my summer clothes in permanent storage.

FRUIT HALO HALO

All hail to halo halo, the stuff that Filipino dreams are made of. You might scream for ice cream but if you were Pinoy (Filipino), it is halo halo that you will always hanker for. Halo means to stir and halo halo means an assortment. It is a dessert with as many ingredients (all individually cooked in syrup) as you could name at the bottom, topped with shaved ice,  then crowned with a dollop of ube jam (purple yam jam), a slice of leche flan (creme caramel) and if you can still take it, a scoop of ice cream. All of that is drizzled with evaporated milk then served to you as is so you can grapple with stirring the ingredients. The ingredients can include canellini beans, azuki beans, chick peas, macapuno (coconut sport), kaong (palm seeds), nata de coco, sweet jackfruit, sweet bananas, sweet potato in syrup, sago, leche flan, haleya and puffed rice. 

AVOCADO AND PISTACHIO PRALINE GELATO

My husband loves avocados but the only way he knows how to eat it is in salads. When we first met he only had it with prawn cocktail.

Avocado grows in abundance in the Philippines. I just love it but the only way I know how to eat it is in sweets. The most common way to eat is is scraped into noodle shapes with a special tool, then mixed with milk, sugar and ice. When I made this for my husband for the first time, he was very pleasantly surprised at how good it tasted made that way. He couldn't imagine it being eaten sweet. He was converted from the first spoonful. It was love at first taste.

RED BEAN SWIRL ICE LOLLIES

It is nearly the end of March and I still feel like Christmas has just gone. Time flies so so swiftly.

It is officially spring and we switch our clocks back to British summer time on the 25th of March. Thanks for that because some of our clocks are still on summer time. 

CHEESE ICE CREAM

"Sorbetes! Sorbetes!" The ice cream man heralds his arrival with a shout and the ringing of a hand bell. Sorbetes is the Tagalog word for ice cream. Children playing in the streets, all hot and bothered, would run and swarm around him upon hearing this magic word. Such is a daily afternoon scene in every street in the Philippines. 

LOW FAT MANGO AND LIME FROZEN YOGHURT

As the summer sets in and the sweltering heat come upon us, it is time to once again indulge in our favourite refreshments. Unfortunately, unless it's a glass of iced water you're thinking of, there's always some calories involved. Our local supermarkets usually have special offers for ice creams making it all the more tempting to load up with our cooling but calorific creamy treats. 

UBE WITH PASTILLAS DE LECHE RIPPLE ICE CREAM

I was stumped by the Kulinarya Cooking Club's theme for this month. I am supposed to make something that I would like to make on my birthday. A seemingly simple task that should actually be easy as it can be anything.